Monday, September 30, 2013

UPDATE: "Two public meetings next week in San Luis Obispo (Monday, 10.7) and Carlsbad (Wednesday, 10.9) have fallen victim to the federal shutdown. The meetings were meant to present the findings and receive public comments on NRC's proposed rules and environmental study on the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel."

Last week was the start of a series of meetings and upcoming events that are important to those of us concerned about nuclear energy. The headline from last week was that the former head of the NRC is becoming more antinuclear than ever. Check out other related news below.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is meeting in San Diego tomorrow (10/1/13) to discuss who gets the bill for Edison's mistakes. Millions of ratepayer's dollars are at stake and we need to show up to be counted. If you can't make it be sure to ask for your rebate by phone: 866-849-8390 or by email: public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov

Here are the details for this and other upcoming events:

1. Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The CPUC 's first Public Participation Hearing in San Diego on how much ratepayers should be stuck with for the defective San Onofre Power Plant!

2 p.m.-5 p.m. AND/OR 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
NOTE that there are 2 sessions: 2-5p and 6:30-9:30p. You don't have to be there the entire time.

The NRC has scheduled twelve public meetings to receive comments on the Waste Confidence Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) and proposed rule. The NRC had ruled previously that it was acceptable to allow nuclear waste to be stored at nuclear power plants for 200 years, until courts made them go back and justify such a claim. Come hear the rationale behind such a claim and let them know how you feel about it.

3. Saturday, October 19, 2013Community Symposium on the Decommissioning of San Onofre and the Ongoing Dangers of Nuclear Waste

This one is brought to you by our own coalition and will be right here in San Clemente. Take this opportunity to ask questions of our independent nuclear waste experts.
Saturday, 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Center for Spiritual Living Capistrano Valley, 1201 Puerta Del Sol, Suite 100, San Clemente, California 92673.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

A group of banks agreed Sept. 27 to extend 80 billion yen ($800 million) in loans to Tokyo Electric Power Co. for refinancing after the struggling utility moved toward restarting two nuclear reactors, bank executives said.

The money will go to repayments due at the end of October on loans of the same amount that were extended to TEPCO before the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami triggered the accident at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

In the coming days, about 30 banks of the group will decide how much of the 80 billion yen each will contribute. They will convey their decision to TEPCO and the government’s Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund by mid-October.

Some of the 30 financial institutions, especially local banks based in areas affected by the March 2011 disaster, remain cautious about lending to TEPCO. If those local banks balk during the discussions, some major banks said they will make up the difference, several bank executives told The Asahi Shimbun.

The decision to grant the new loans came the same day TEPCO applied to the Nuclear Regulation Authority for safety screenings of the No. 6 and No. 7 reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture. The screening process is required before the reactors can be restarted...

UPDATE: "(Two) public meetings [next week in San Luis Obispo (Monday, 10.7) and Carlsbad (Wednesday, 10.9)] have fallen victim to the federal shutdown. The meetings were meant to present the findings and receive public comments on NRC's proposed rules and environmental study on the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel."

UPDATE 2: Due to the lack of an appropriation and the government shutdown, the Waste Confidence Directorate regrets to inform you that we are postponing our two public meetings scheduled for next week: Tuesday, October 15, in Perrysburg, Ohio; and Thursday, October 17, in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

The first and last public comment meetings, on October 1st and November 14th, will be held at NRC HQ in Rockville, MD. At these two public comment meetings only, members of the public can take part remotely, online via webcast and/or by telephone conference, and provide oral comments that way. (All other public comment meetings around the country must be attended in person only, in order to submit public comments.)

NRC has requested that participants in the public comment meetings register ahead of time. You can pre-register by phone at (301) 287-9392, or by filling out the webform at:

If there is a large number of persons at a meeting seeking to make public comments, NRC will limit each speaker to 3 minutes. Although one can register on the day of, at the event, those who have pre-registered will be given priority at the microphone.

NRC has provided the following point of contact for any questions about the material in the GEIS:

Friday, September 27, 2013

Public meeting Thursday focused on safety during decommissioning of nuclear plant

Oceanside — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will consider a request to form a citizens oversight panel to help make sure the San Onofre nuclear power plant is dismantled safely and cost-effectively, a commission official said at a public meeting in Carlsbad on Thursday evening.

The request came from Gene Stone, a San Clemente resident who represented a coalition of citizen and environmental groups who want to monitor the nuclear plant’s decontamination and removal, an elaborate process called “decommissioning” that could take up to 60 years to complete and cost at least $4.1 billion.

Involving a citizens panel would require approval from the federal agency’s appointed commissioners, but staff members would “take it under consideration,” said Larry W. Camper, director of the agency’s division of waste management and environmental protection.

Utility officials decided in June to keep San Onofre shut down permanently, after a leak of radioactive steam last year exposed problems with generators that were upgraded in 2010 and 2011.

At Thursday’s briefing, NRC officials walked through their oversight procedures and took questions from the public.

Safety occupied much of the discussion. Officials said that used nuclear fuel will be stored in a refrigerated pool for five to seven years until it has cooled sufficiently.

Then radioactive material will be moved to steel-reinforced, concrete casks with 5-foot-thick roof caps and 4-foot walls that are designed to withstand an earthquake or other disasters. Such casks have been in use at San Onofre since 2003.

Officials also said the casks can be immersed without problems in up to 50 feet of water during a flood. They estimated the biggest potential tsunami wave at 27 feet, and there’s a 28-foot-high sea wall between the Pacific Ocean and the fuel storage area, which is situated about 20 feet above sea level.

Flooding from a 2011 tsunami caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan, when pumps failed to keep cooling water flowing.

Local residents and activists have been skeptical of such safety assurances regarding San Onofre.

Stone said the plant’s decommissioning was an important milestone for the “old and dangerous nuclear fleet” in the U.S.

“We’d like to be an active part of the safety of this process,” he said.

In response to a question posed by the coalition, NRC officials said that San Onofre has used a highly radioactive fuel known as “high burn-up” that will take longer to cool before removal to dry casks. Officials also acknowledged that there is no way to monitor the behavior of spent fuel inside the casks, but the agency is studying the issue.

Tearing down the plant and restoring the site will be supervised by Southern California Edison, the plant’s operator and 80 percent owner. San Diego Gas & Electric owns 20 percent.

Edison’s lease with the Navy calls for San Onofre’s site along Interstate 5 in Camp Pendleton to be restored to pristine, “green-field” condition.

Costs are estimated at roughly $4.1 billion. As of Dec. 31, 2012, the utilities had collected $3.85 billion in a trust account from a charge on customer bills, officials said at the meeting.

Edison has until June 2015 to present an initial decommissioning plan to the NRC.

At Fukushima Unit 4, the impending removal of hugely radioactive spent fuel rods from a pool 100 feet in the air presents unparalleled scientific and engineering challenges. With the potential for 15,000 times more fallout than was released at Hiroshima, we ask the world community, through the United Nations, to take control of this uniquely perilous task.

INTERVIEW: Special feature interview with Joseph Mangano of Radiation and Public Health Project (www.radiation.org) on how the International Atomic Energy Agency’s straitjacketed and muzzled “epidemiology” makes it impossible for the World Health Organization to ever present honest information on the dangers of nuclear radiation. Based on an analysis of the IAEA’s fatally flawed “science” by the late Dr. Rosalie Bertell. Infuriating, jaw-dropping — and the underlying reason why the nuclear-industrial complex continues to get away with putting the future of all planetary life at risk.

Nuclear Hotseat Podcast

Nuclear Hotseat is the weekly international news magazine keeping you up to date on all things anti-nuclear. Produced and Hosted by Three Mile Island survivor Libbe HaLevy, each podcast contains the week’s international nuclear news, at least one expert interview, ways to protect physical health of yourself and your loved ones from the dangers of radiation exposure, and activist opportunities.

Among the nuclear experts interviewed by Nuclear Hotseat in its first two years:

UPDATE: "Two public meetings next week in San Luis Obispo (Monday, 10.7) and Carlsbad (Wednesday, 10.9) have fallen victim to the federal shutdown. The meetings were meant to present the findings and receive public comments on NRC's proposed rules and environmental study on the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel."

Pack the meetings; Speak Out!

Since the summer of 2012, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been unable to issue licenses for new reactors, nor renewals for existing licenses. A federal court threw out the underpinning of the agency's radioactive waste policy--its "waste confidence" rule. That rule had stated that the NRC was confident that high-level radioactive waste always would be stored or disposed safely, and thus could continue to be generated.

But the court found that with the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site effectively cancelled and no alternative in place, the NRC could not be "confident" of permanent disposal. Moreover, the court ruled that the NRC had no technical basis for asserting that current on-site storage practices in fuel pools and dry casks would be safe for the indefinite future. This ruling forced the current moratorium on licensing.

The NRC has now prepared a Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) as part of the process of replacing its "waste confidence" rule and it hopes to finalize this document and resume licensing during 2014. In the Fall of 2013, the agency will hold 12 public meetings around the country to explain and receive comment on this document.

These meetings are our opportunity to point out the technical shortcomings in this new document, and to call for making the licensing moratorium permanent. There will be protests and public involvement at each one of these meetings. We hope you will join us.

Note: In the event of a government shutdown due to Congressional failure and intransigence, the NRC meetings likely will be postponed. We will keep you informed of any postponements and developments that may affect the schedule meetings.

• Download sample press releases, Alerts, and more for each meeting for use by grassroots groups. Note: these are in Word format so you can edit, add your group's information and customize how you wish.

• You can pre-register with the NRC to speak at one of the meetings [here]. Note: pre-registration is not required, but may be useful to assure you have a speaking slot in case the meetings are as packed as we expect them to be.

• September 13, 2013 Federal Register notice announcing meetings and written public comment period. Written comments are due by November 27, 2013.

• [Here] is the June 8, 2012 federal court ruling that voided the NRC's "waste confidence" rule and forced the agency to institute a moratorium on reactor licensing and relicensing until it established a technical basis for its belief that high-level radioactive waste will always be safely stored.

At 12:00 am on 9/28/13, Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2 (IP2) becomes the first and only nuclear reactor in the United States to operate with an expired license. We, the Stony Point Convergence on Indian Point, are organizing a joint-paddling, biking and walking/running convergence on the Peekskill Riverfront Green on Saturday, September 28th to call public attention to the continued operation of IP2 despite its current license expiring on that same day. In addition, we will be vigiling at 6 locations within 10 miles of the Power Plant. We need you to hop on your bike, stretch your legs, grab your paddles or dig your boots into the concrete and join us!

Roughly our start times are:

Bikers: gather at Indian Point Old Gate at 10:30am, bike 7 mile route to Peekskill Riverfront Green (PRG).

Walkers/Runners: gather at Indian Point Old Gate at 11:00am, walk/run 2.3 miles to PRG.

Kayakers: gather at Annesville Circle at 10:30am and paddle out to Indian Point before landing at PRG at 12:30pm

Vigilers: meet at one of six locations (Cold Spring @ Little Stony Point, Annesville Circle in Cortlandt, Peekskill Gazebo - Division Street and South Street, Yorktown Heights Rt. 202 and 35, Croton-Harmon Trainstation and Ossining Farmers' Market - see maps below) at 10:30am, vigil until noon and drive/walk/take train to PRG to arrive there at 12:30pm.

Peekskill Riverfront Green: convergence of vigilers, bikers, walkers/runners and paddlers at 12:30pm with music, food (most-likely potluck and bbq), and a megaphone for people to speak.

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Einstein said,
"The splitting
of the atom
changed everything
save man's mode
of thinking;
thus we drift towards
unparalleled catastrophe."
He also said,
"Nuclear power is a hell of a way
to boil water!"

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